Dreams Of Climbing Foxfire

Dreams of Foxfire

by Chris Chaney

Publication Date: August 2000

When I started climbing I had dreams of where this new distraction could take me. I had the common misconceptions about climbing that involve visions of myself pulling through roofs hundreds of feet above the ground, feet dangling, sun beating down, angels singing, etc., etc. I saw myself climbing huge monoliths of stone and attaining the summit dirty, tired, and worn but with the experiences of legends.

Okay, so the first few months I climbed those visions were shattered. I was naive as are most people when they first get into climbing. But I was also hooked. I'd never experienced anything so challenging and positive. I loved the outdoors and exploring new ground and the cliffs of the Red River Gorge offered more new ground to explore than I'd ever be able to get to in a single life time.

I noticed this one climb in the guide book though. It was one of the two longest mentioned in the book, over two hundred feet (which is very tall for the RRG) and it was the easier of the two. Foxfire...the guide book described the route in six pitches, a wandering line with varied climbing and on the coolest formation in the Gorge, Eagle's Nest in the Upper Red River Gorge in the Clifty Wilderness area of RRG. I wanted it bad. Unfortunately I had no experience leading traditional climbs and had no gear in which to even try a trad lead. I was disheartened to say the least.

A few months went by and eventually I met a guy named Steve Freas (not his real name) that was living in the Gorge working on freeing an aid line called Halloween. Steve was interesting. I met him on a 20 degree day out bouldering at Emerald City. I thought he was the coolest guy on the planet when I met him. He only had his camping supplies which were very limited, his climbing gear, some food stashed near his project and his mountain bike. Steve really wanted to be a hard man.

Within a couple weeks after meeting him I'd already recruited Steve to be my ropegun on Foxfire. We hiked up to the base on a warm February day. A cold spell had broke and we were finally enjoying some of Kentucky's finest mild winter weather.

It turns out that in my pre-climbing explorations I'd soloed the first pitch of the route trying to find a way to the top of the buttress on which the route is located. A friend and myself climbed up to the first ledge and then down climbed when we couldn't find a reasonable route to the top. So I gladly volunteered to "lead" the first pitch. I basically soloed it and then belayed Steve up to the first big ledge.

The second pitch is where the trouble began. We pondered the route for a few minutes and finally decided on the face at the right end of the ledge, but Steve got off route on some crumbly crack and was moaning over the lack of good gear. He fumbled and dropped a camlock (an archaic cross between a hex and a tri-cam) which we found later when we retrieved our packs. He managed to finish the pitch without hurting either of us and at the second belay we both were confused at the route we were to take.

The guidebook describes the third pitch as "...grope left around a corner (no pro), back to the center of the buttress..." All we could see was a scary mantel onto an exposed ledge that disappeared around the corner. Steve took off around the corner leaving me with my fear on the ledge before the third pitch traverse. I felt the rope come tight against my harness and seriously began to doubt the intelligence of climbing Foxfire. I numbly shuffled over the the mantel and pulled through it and crawled around to the wonderful third belay on an exposed ledge.

The next pitch towered above. After a false start when Steve tried to grunge up a wide crack to the left (and only managed to bring down some ancient and rusting cans out of the crack) he was finally leading up the classic 5.7 crack. I was more nervous than I'd ever been in my life. Never had I been so high off the ground attached to the earth only by a half inch nylon cord. I timidly and clumsily followed the trail of gear up the exposed fourth pitch to the roof, passing neon green and orange lichens along the way. As an inexperienced climber I saw the roof on Foxfire as a major obstacle to my healthy state of mind. In more recent ascents of the route I've come to love making those moves and revelling in the exposure and wonder of the route. I don't remember how I got past the roof that day but I finally heaved onto the ledge next to Steve and saw his now famous "body belay." We enjoyed the ledge for few minutes and then scrambled up the 4th class variation last pitch to the summit. I'd climbed Foxfire. And I was intimidated by the thought of ever trying it again, but...I knew I would.

After an epic three rappels to get to the ground (in lieu of a ten minute walk down) we gathered our gear and our memories and headed home.

I've now climbed Foxfire half a dozen times and led the entire route myself with far less stress than I felt on that day years ago. I love the experiences climbing has given me. I love finding amazing places out of reach of the ordinary person, and sharing those experiences with friends and remembering them fondly as I do them again and again and again.